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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
Reviewed By Stuart Nachbar
Catherine Johnson’s Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace is a story of a close Minnesota family thrown in turmoil over a poor marital decision; its consequences place them in a chain of financial, legal and moral struggles that go on for five long years. Johnson wrote Shades based on true events in her own family and reports they were toned down to make the story more believable to her readers. But Shades had more than enough compelling twists to keep me interested. I don’t want to know the true stories.
 Shades of Darkenss, Shades of Grace
Johnson, a former journalist and corporate communications professional narrates Shades from the viewpoint of Kay, loving, but frustrated by Paul’s alcohol addiction and lapses in character. She also becomes a surrogate mother to Kaitlin, Paul and Pamela’s only offspring from their ill-fated marriage. Kay is married to a minister, Tim, who is the only one in the story who sees any good in Pamela, and this frustrates Kay even more. Kay’s parents try to hold their composure throughout the story, as does Jack, but Kay is the only one who brings the necessary fight to expose Pamela for the crooked gold digger she is.
I come from a blended family, though thankfully not one broken by marriage like the Piersons, and it’s mentally challenging to welcome new blood into a lifestyle that’s become settled. It can take several years to put the differences between two families aside and become one. From personal experience, you learn to forgive, but you never forget your differences. And you can even find common ground. |
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Written by Editor
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
The Virtual Book Review Network is pleased to interview Steven Vannoy and Craig Ross, authors of Stomp the Elephant in the Office
If the atmosphere in your office is so toxic it feels like a 1,000 pound elephant has taken up residence, know this: you can evict that elephant, get more accomplished and be excited about your job once more. All the steps and strategies to permanently banish the elephant in the workplace – the poor behaviors, attitudes and dysfunctional actions that stop people from getting things done – are outlined in Stomp the Elephant in the Office.
 Stomp the Elephant in the Office
Craig Ross is President of Pathways to Leadership, Inc. and leads the development of Pathways programs and facilitates internationally. His background in education and coaching lends itself to his responsibilities in program development and facilitator training.
LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to take what you do at Pathways to Leadership and turn it into a book?
The inspiration for the title came from our client-partners. There’s a myth, Lauren, that work has to be a drag; that we have to continuously search for methods to motivate uninspired employees; that results can only improve incrementally. It doesn’t have to be that way! Yet people, leaders at every level, have accepted it as the norm. That’s the elephant: toxic attitudes, poor behaviors – in other words, culture – that everyone is aware of but no one is doing anything about.
Proof that few people are doing anything about it: 66% of corporate strategies are never executed (Ernst and Young); 72% of the work force is disengaged (Gallup). In nearly 85 percent of companies, employees’ morale sharply declines after their first six months, and continues to deteriorate in the years that follow (Sirota, Mischkind and Meltzer). We could go on. There’s a growing band of leaders who are not buying into the myth anymore. They’re using the tools we talk about in the book to stomp the elephant and change how work is getting done. And in the process, they’re changing the lives of those around them.
LAUREN SMITH: Are dysfunctional workplace cultures a bigger problem now as compared to past decades? If so, why?
You could say they are a bigger problem now – and it’s primarily because we as a society are so much more “aware” than we used to be. One person shared, “My father said he used to go to work and he had to ‘hang up his human-ness’ as he went into the office. And then he’d put his ‘human-ness’ back on when he left.”
Many people weren’t even aware that they should, could – and were entitled to – enjoy their job.
So dysfunctional workplaces are a bigger problem now because people want more. They want better. And the few organizations that figure out how to stomp the elephant and deliver that are winning. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 April 2008 )
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Written by Chris Brown
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
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Written by Brijbhushan J. Gupta
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Sunday, 13 April 2008 |
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Written by Editor
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
Interviewing author Erik Quisling...brought to you by the Virtual Book Review Network  Fables from the Mud Erik Quisling: I initially came up with the idea for Fables from the Mud shortly after I graduated college. In the course of my soul searching and trying to figure out my place in the world, I was struck with the idea of a clam who was trying to do the exact same thing. For some reason it struck me as extremely amusing. This is how The Angry Clam, the first fable in my book, was born. Lauren Smith: Do you see Fables From the Mud as a satire, cultural commentary or something more? Erik Quisling: Fables From The Mud is about three little creatures – a clam, an ant, and a worm – all of whom are struggling with very human problems. The stories are satirical but in many ways are simply a cultural commentary on the human obsession with finding meaning in the world. All in all, they are designed to be amusing and to get you to see somewhat the absurdity of taking life too seriously. Lauren Smith: How did you develop each of the fables? Erik Quisling: Each fable was born from its own separate bout of inspiration. In each case, it was a single line of text that came to me that was like lighting a fuse that set the story on its course. Once the fuse was lit, the stories pretty much wrote themselves – I simply had to go back and edit them a little bit. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 April 2008 )
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